


Collaboration

by rlyehtaxidermist



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-20 04:26:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13139034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rlyehtaxidermist/pseuds/rlyehtaxidermist
Summary: Marisa visits Narumi after the events of Hidden Star in Four Seasons. Repeatedly, and with guests.Written for Touhou Secret Santa 2017.





	1. Chapter 1

_Thunk._

Yatadera Narumi jumped in her seat, striking her knee against her desk. While the small, half-built golem suspended above the workbench barely moved, the pile of clay pieces once perched on the edge showered to the floor. The pieces landed with a quick series of muffled clinks against the heavy padding on the floor of her workshop; too soft of a landing to shatter any of them, but reorganising the desk would take another hour. Two, if any had rolled under the bookshelves.

Narumi sighed, pushing her stool back carefully from the workbench and kneeling down to gather the scattered pieces. Thankfully, the mats were soft enough that nothing had rolled too far from where it fell; unfortunately, some of the pieces had fallen on each other, and some of the smaller pieces had small fractures in the clay. She picked up a cracked piece at random; it was a small rod, intended for use as a fulcrum in the golem’s arm. She held it up to her left eye, carefully inspecting the cracks.

_Thunk._

She jolted again, dropping the piece back to the floor. Her head snapped around to the source of the sound; one of her workshop’s windows, where a mostly-melted snowball slid down the glass. Narumi pushed herself to her feet and snapped her fingers; one of her earlier golems shuffled into the room, her hat and scarf tightly clutched in its hands. Pulling her scarf on, Narumi walked over to the window and pulled it open.

The seasons had almost returned to normal; deep green grass and shrubs poked through thin, cracked ice; the walls of her house, once all but buried, was now gleaming with small streams of snowmelt. Most of the trees outside her house had already shed their snowy coats, and the snowdrifts had melted down to piles of grimy slush.

Standing knee-deep in one such pile, clutching a half-shaped snowball, was a young woman wearing a pink scarf, an extremely frilly witch’s outfit, and a beaming, toothy smile. “Hey, Naruko!” Kirisame Marisa, the Forest of Magic’s resident disturbance, shouted up at her. She reached behind her and drew out a large painted gourd. “You weren’t at Reimu’s, so I figured I’d bring the party to you!”

Narumi gave her a flat look, pulled her head back into the window, and shut it behind her. She turned in place and walked back towards her desk.

_Thunk._

This time, she wasn’t surprised at all. Pinching her nose, she turned back to the window and pulled it open again. As soon as she stuck her head out, she was face-to-face with Marisa, now hanging upside-down from her broom, directly outside her window. Her smile was somehow even brighter than before. In the corner of her eye, Narumi could see the melting snow still clinging to Marisa’s boots. “Do you do this often?” Narumi asked, a flat look on her face.

Marisa shrugged. “Depends what you mean by ‘this’.” She swung herself back and around to be seated on her broom, kicked off her boots down into the snow, and jumped across to Narumi’s windowsill. “I mean, what’s the point of being thirty percent hat by height if you don’t climb through a few windows, y’know?”

Narumi did not know, but nodded anyway.

Marisa slipped effortlessly through the window, dusted off her dress, and promptly sat on the floor with a rustle of cloth and a light _fwump_. Pulling two wooden cups from somewhere in her dress, she uncorked the gourd and filled each almost to the brim, before offering one to Narumi. She took the cup, carefully balancing it in her hand. She took a cautious sip.

She couldn’t really compare the sake from the gourd to anything she’d ever drank before; the only memory that came close was being kicked in the teeth by a malfunctioning golem.

She took another sip. “What _is_ this?”

Marisa shrugged. “Borrowed it from Suika, so the oni made it. Dunno more than that.” She took a long sip from her bowl; Narumi stared in semi-concealed shock. “So,” Marisa asked, eyes shining, “what’s all this?” She gestured around the workshop.

“Workshop,” Narumi said, her tongue still burning from her latest sip. “Nothing too special.”

“What’s _that_?” Marisa was pointing to her wardrobe golem, which was still standing idle in the centre of the room.

Narumi tossed her hat and scarf to the golem, snapped her fingers twice, and it shuffled out of the room. “One of my first experiments.” She waved her hand. “I have it minding my winter clothes; it’s not very good at it, though. Sometimes it brings me a bowl instead of a hat.”

Marisa nodded. “Yeah, I was reading at Kourin’s about that sort of problem. Did you know that in the outside world, they haven’t even taught their shikigami what fruit is?”

Narumi shook her head. “I can’t say I’m surprised. That outsider and her… ‘smartphone’,” Narumi cautiously sounded out the unfamiliar word, “had some recordings of outside-world golems, and I can’t say I was impressed.”

Marisa laughed. “Yeah, those are great!” Marisa pantomimed a pair of jerky, claw-like hands, then fell onto her back, flailing her arms stiffly above her. Narumi hid her laugh with her cup. “Y’see the one they built that was like a dog?” Marisa asked, pushing herself back upright.

“The… Big Dog, I believe?” Narumi said, before another small sip of the sake. “It’s one of their better ones, I think. Animating golems is easiest when their construction moves similarly to the creator; I haven’t attempted a four-legged golem yet, so the fact that they managed to do so without a solid grasp of humanoid shapes suggests that they either know methods I do not, or that the most accomplished golem artisans of the outside world are dogs.”

Narumi took another sip, keeping her face carefully level.

“Either way, I am quite impressed.”

Marisa burst into laughter, falling forward this time.

“Did I say something strange?” Narumi cocked her head, holding her cup up in front of her face. Marisa kept laughing. Eventually, Narumi started chuckling too, and soon the two of them were both hunched over, the gourd and cups forgotten.

Marisa regained her composure first, though she was still sniggering as Narumi settled down. When the room was silent again, Marisa pointed over to Narumi’s desk. “So why not try it?”

“What?”

“I mean, if some dogs in the outside world can build a golem like that, why not you?” Marisa’s smile was infectious. “Hey, why even stop at four legs? Should be more stable if we use six or eight. Plus, you could support more weight...”

“Are you asking me to build a giant mechanical spider?”

Marisa smiled innocently. “Hey, you’re the one who said ‘giant mechanical spider’.” She winked. “Especially if it’s Reimu who asks.” She winked again, slower this time. “But yes.”

Narumi furrowed her brow. “Why is this almost convincing?”

“Ask anyone, I’m extremely persuasive.” Marisa’s smile actually _sparkled_ as she flicked her thumb towards her face. “Plus the oni-killer is basically liquid ideas.” Marsia took a long sip from her drink. Narumi gave her own a funny look, and gently nudged it away from her. “So anyway, I’ve got the perfect person to help on this. Back in an hour?”

By the time Narumi made up her mind on her answer, Marisa had already leapt out the window; by the time Narumi was on her feet, the room was bathed in a burst of silver-blue light and a rush of heat. Narumi stuck her head out of the window again; a long line of melted snow led off into the forest.

Marisa’s boots sat abandoned in the muddy remnants of a snowdrift, just outside her door. Narumi cleared her throat, and a small, stocky golem crept out her door to retrieve them. Sighing, Narumi sat back down at her desk, and set to work; it’d be best to make as much as she could in advance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally this was going to be posted in one big block, but due to my own obviously-in-hindsight overloaded short holiday, I'll be pushing things out over the next couple of days.


	2. Chapter 2

_Thunk._

Narumi craned her head; a smear of mud was sliding down her window. She sighed, pushed her stool back, and began walking towards the window when a small doll holding a miniature mop floated into view, and began carefully wiping and polishing the glass.

A series of sharp, quick knocks on the door followed. Narumi turned and exited her workshop, clapping her hands once to stir the porter into motion. By the time she rounded the corner from the stairs to the entrance room, a tall, short-haired blonde, a small army of flying dolls, and a massive pile of awkwardly-bulging rough burlap sacks with Marisa’s waist and legs stood awkwardly in her entryway.

One of her porter golems was shining the pile of sacks’ shoes, while the blonde looked on in amusement; a pair of dolls were perched on the edge of the mat, holding tiny books and quills, gesturing to the golem and taking tiny notes in the book.

“Hey, Naruko! That you, or another of these guys?” Marisa’s voice said from somewhere behind the pile of sacks. She withdrew her foot from a shoe long enough to point at the porter. “I love these guys, how can I get one?”

Narumi sighed. “Just leave your shoes with it at the door. My workshop is this way; can you bring all that,” she gestured to the pile, which seemed to have grown even more misshapen and uneven in the last few seconds, “up the stairs?”

The other woman raised her hands, and the dolls formed up into a tightly-packed formation; each rank flew forwards and picked a single sack off of the pile, and flew up and over Narumi’s head. When the last rank picked up the next-to-last sack, Marisa crossed her arms and gave the other woman a mock-offended look. “Why didn’t you do that from the beginning?”

“Marisa, you’re the one who told me that you ‘had this’.” The other girl walked towards Narumi, not even turning her head towards Marisa. “Miss Yatadera? I am Alice Margatroid. It’s good to meet you.” She curtsied slightly, and all the dolls formed up behind her to match the motion.

“Alice?” Narumi jumped. “Oh! Thank you very much for the hat!” She bowed deeply; behind Alice, Marisa doubled over in laughter.

“...you’re welcome.” Alice sighed, pinching her nose. “Marisa said you were investigating golem locomotion?”

Narumi nodded. “Though… it’s more like she came here yesterday, gave me a project, and said you’d be coming today.”

Alice sighed, turning to look at Marisa out of the corner of her eye. Marisa winked, and Alice pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “Of course she did.”

“Are those dolls yours?” Narumi pointed to the two dolls watching the golem, which turned to wave at her.

Alice smiled and raised a hand. For a brief moment, Narumi could see a thousand iridescent strings, stretching out from her fingers, stretching back out around the door, over Narumi’s head, and down to the pair on the floor. The two closed their books, lifted off the ground, and alighted on Alice’s capelet. With another flick of her wrist, the strings faded back into nothingness. Narumi swung her hand where the strings had been, but found nothing but air.

“You’re talking to the number-one doll expert in Gensokyo,” Marisa said, slipping an arm around Alice’s waist. “and the number-two magician. I told you I had the perfect person for this.”

“I wasn’t aware you thought so highly of Patchouli, Marisa.” Alice said, giving Marisa a knowing look.

“What about Patchy?” Marisa asked, eyebrow raised.

“Well, if you call me the number-two magician...” Alice said, her smile baring only the slightest hint of mischief. “I suppose you could have been talking about Miss Hijiri...”

Marisa huffed. “You know exactly who I meant.”

“Ellen, then?” Alice stroked her chin. “An interesting choice, but not entirely without its merits...”

Marisa threw her hands in the air, an exaggerated look of frustration on her face, and turned to walk up the stairs. “Let’s just get started.”

Alice walked up behind her, softly chuckling to herself. Narumi turned to head back up the stairs. Alice’s dolls were flitting about the workshop, setting up a number of small tables and tiny machines. Marisa was rustling through a larger sack, drawing out various strange plants and phials of murky, swirling liquids.

“What are those for?” Narumi asked, pointing in particular to what looked like bottled fire.

Marisa shrugged. “Ambiance, mostly. What good’s a room of plotting witches if there’s not some bubbling potions?” She pointed at the fire-phial. “That one’ll be good if we need to make steel, though.”

Narumi took a step back from the flaming phial, and carefully walked through rows of doll-sized machines to reach her stool. “And all this?” She gestured to the tiny factory floor, where dolls were already drifting down to manage the machines.

Alice smiled. “I wasn’t sure exactly what we’d need, so I brought a portion of my whole workshop.” She waved a hand across the whole assembly, even as parts started to move. “I can process usable samples of almost any non-magical materials through here, though I need Marisa’s help with metals.” Marisa brandished her mini-hakkero, red sparks flickering around its core.

Narumi crossed her arms. “I’d normally make all the golem parts myself; there’s a kiln downstairs.”

Alice nodded. “Understandable. I wouldn’t trust anyone else’s doll parts,” a pointed look at Marisa, “no matter what they might be able to do with gunpowder.”

Narumi turned to Marisa. “Gunpowder?” she mouthed. Marisa just laughed, and mimed an explosion with her hands, and pointed at a doll.

Narumi was now _very_ nervous about that bottle of… whatever Marisa said she could make steel with. That, and one of the mushrooms looked like it was glaring at her. Somehow, the explosive dolls themselves weren’t as worrying.

“So,” Alice said, her left hand held up behind her, “what are your concerns?” A group of dolls in small hardhats flew up the stairs, carrying a bamboo chair. “I haven’t investigated golem construction much beyond the basic level; the animating enchantment is too narrow for my purposes.”

“Really?” Narumi asked, watching curiously as Alice settled into her chair and the cloud of dolls dispersed through the window. “I’ve found it extremely versatile.” She cleared her throat, and one of her golems walked into the room, a tea tray balanced on its head and outstretched arms.

Alice nodded, and a pair of dolls alighted on the tray, lifting the pot to pour three cups of tea. Four more left their positions on the floor, and together three pairs of dolls picked up the cups and pulled them around the room. “Oh, I have no doubt the method can accomplish great things; I might ask to look over your work later, if I may. However, golems implicitly cannot grow beyond their programming; I wish to create a truly independent being, not an automaton.”

Narumi took her teacup from the pair of dolls carefully; they curtsied, and returned to the miniature workshop below. “I see.” She stood up, carefully walking across her workshop to the bookshelves. “I’ve been researching outside-world automation techniques to try and bridge some of that gap myself, but I don’t have the right tools.”

Somehow, Marisa was already at the bookshelf, paging through the very book Narumi intended to pick up. “ _Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs_?” Marisa flipped past the cover, right to the middle of the book. “Huh. Going from the cover, I figured it was some kind of alchemy book, but this doesn’t look anything like Patchy’s stuff.” Marisa turned to Narumi, an innocent grin on her face. “Mind if I borrow this?” Before she’d even finished asking, Marisa had stuffed the book somewhere in her hat. Narumi just nodded slowly, and turned back towards her stool.

“So,” Marisa said, somehow leaping halfway across the room to lean by the staircase by the time Narumi had sat back down, “what’re the problems with this anyway?”

“Mostly,” Narumi said, pulling a half-written pile of notes from under her desk, “the problem is that most golem animation spells just borrow the caster’s understanding of how their body moves.” Narumi waved her hand in front of her face. “You don’t really need to _know_ or _think_ anything to move your hands, right?”

Alice nodded; Marisa cocked her head, and started wiggling her fingers in front of her face.

“So, we’ve got this… base understanding of how to move, and the animation spell copies that over to the golem.” Narumi pointed at the tea golem. “It can move and carry something without detailed programming because I can.” She walked over to the golem, set her cup on the tray, and gave it a gentle push; its feet shifted slightly, but it remained rooted in place. “It keeps its balance because I can keep mine.”

“Okay, I get it!” Marisa said, bounding up to Narumi. “So the problem’s just that we don’t have eight legs, right?”

“Why eight specifically?” Alice asked, squinting scrutinously at Marisa.

“No reason!” Marisa said cheerfully. “But anyway, I can move my legs or arms or fingers or whatever, but if I grafted on another arm, I wouldn’t know how to use it, right?”

Narumi nodded. “Exactly.”

“So we just need to make using extra arms something you know how to do!”

Alice and Narumi just stared at Marisa, their expressions flat.

“That’s not actually a completely terrible idea,” Alice said, “though it’s a very Marisa way of putting it.” She raised a hand and moved her fingers slightly; her dolls abandoned their tiny workshop and formed a circle in the air. “My dolls are something like an ‘extra arm’, after all.”

“You control them reflexively?” Narumi asked, whirling to face Alice. “How?”

“See?” Marisa said smugly, “Best person for the job.”

“It’s not completely natural.” Alice raised her hand again, and the strings linking her to her dolls reappeared. “Each string corresponds to some part of some doll; it’s as much a matter of knowing which motions of my hands or arms will touch which strings, as it is one of instinct.”

Narumi shook her head. “Any aspect of training or knowledge won’t transfer.”

“How about spells?” Marisa cut in. “Like, I’m pretty sure Byakuren’s physical stuff doesn’t need huge incantations; I don’t _think_ she can give herself extra arms, but that’s all still a thing you can’t do normally, right?”

Alice and Narumi both turned to Marisa. “That...” Alice trailed off, closed her eyes, and started mouthing something quietly to herself. “I don’t see a reason that couldn’t work. Do you, Miss Yatadera?”

Narumi shook her head. “I don’t see an obvious problem; but I don’t know how any reflexively-activated spells might mesh with the golem enchantment, though.” She waved to her desk. “I don’t really work with many enchantments outside life creation, so I don’t even know what it might do theoretically.”

“Theoretically?” Marisa asked, with the same manic smile on her face and in her voice. “I got someone for that. Plus, I could use some more references on this stuff.” She rushed to the windowsill, where her broom was already waiting. “I’ll be back in another hour or so!”

And with another burning light, she was gone.

“Is she… always like this?” Narumi asked.

“When she’s found an exciting project.” Alice smiled. “Which is to say, nearly always. Say what one might about Marisa, she’s not lacking in enthusiasm.”

The room sat in silence for a moment. “There’s some plans in that cupboard over there for my golem legs,” Narumi said, and a small flight of dolls quickly lifted off to open it. “Do you think you could start building some of the smaller parts?” Alice nodded, and as she sipped her tea, the tiny factory set to work. Narumi spun back around to her desk, and the first of several incomplete golem heads.

The room fell silent, save for the clinking of tiny porcelain workers, and the wet squelches of the clay in Narumi’s hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's all that I have edited so far; more to come after my pending flight and long bus trips tomorrow.


End file.
